


Don't Say Goodbye

by Ylixia



Series: Everything You Are Draws Me To You [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Coda, Episode Tag, Episode s2e20 Scars, First Kiss, Light Angst, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 07:38:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3928453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylixia/pseuds/Ylixia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So were you ever gonna tell me or were you just gonna sneak off like a – thief in the night?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Say Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS FOR THE TAGGED EPISODE in case that wasn't clear.
> 
> So I'm not extremely upset about Mack leaving (I called that one a while ago, and I'm almost positive we'll be seeing more of him) but I was VERY upset that we didn't get to have a farewell scene between him and Mack.
> 
> So I wrote my own version. With sad kisses. So really, it's all worked out for the best.
> 
> Enjoy
> 
> (thank you to [yoshimars](yoshimars.tumblr.com) for the quick beta, and for soothing my writerly ego)

 

“So were you ever gonna tell me or were you just gonna sneak off like a – thief in the night?” Leo asks, leaning against the door frame with his hands in his pockets, going for casual and probably failing. He's never been good and feigning indifference. Or at... indifference in general, really.

Mack looks up from where he's bent over, packing up his tools in the garage. He stands up when he catches sight of Leo, his expression softening in a way that's almost normal. Leo can feel his stomach flip the same way it always does when Mack looks at him like that. Did. Looked.

Past tense.

“I wouldn't have left without saying goodbye, Turbo,” Mack says gently.

“Don't!” Leo bites out, raising his arm like he can shove away the nickname. “Don't say that. You don't get to call me that, not after – "

“Okay,” Mack says, holding his hands up in surrender. “Okay. I'm sorry, Leo.”

Leo flinches a little, but doesn't correct him because. Well. It is his name, isn't it? There's no reason it should feel like a slap to the face.

“Are you?” He asks before he can stop himself, because he's pretty sure he doesn't want to hear the answer either way. “Sorry, I mean.”

Mack's face twists and he looks sad, but he doesn't say anything. Leo hasn't exactly been good at picking up subtle social cues since... ever, really, but especially since Ward dropped him out of a plane and fucked his brain all to hell. But he's pretty sure he's reading this situation loud and clear.

“Forget it, I shouldn't have come here,” Leo mutters, ducking his head and rubbing at the back of his neck as he turns to leave.

“Tur – Leo, wait!” Mack calls after him, rushing forward but stopping himself a good distance away. Mack's always been so conscious of his size, how he intimidates people, but Leo's never been afraid of him. “Look, I know you're angry, but you need to know I – ”

“Angry?” Leo splutters, whirling around to face Mack again. “You think I – you lied to me! You _spied_ on me, and you – ”

“I never spied on you,” Mack interjects firmly. Leo doesn't think Mack's ever cut him off before.

“Oh, right,” Leo scoffs. “You just used me to spy on Coulson.”

“ _No_ ,” Mack stresses, taking another step closer. “I had a job to do, yes, but you and me were never a part of that.”

Leo wavers, wanting so desperately to believe him. He's tired, he's so _tired_ of his friends lying and betraying him.

“You lied to me Mack,” Leo repeats, voice cracking.

“I know,” Mack says. “But I need you to understand that I never wanted to lie to you. Please, if you don't believe anything else I've ever said to you, _please_ believe that.”

Leo swallows. “But you still did it.”

Mack looks away from Leo for a moment. “The choices people make right now, the direction SHEILD goes from here, will effect the course of the entire world for decades. Maybe centuries. I couldn't just walk away from that.”

“You're walking away now.”

Mack sighs and nods, steps a little closer. Leo could reach out and touch him now, if he wanted. It's the closest they've been together since the coup, and Leo can feel the familiar urge to press close, as close as Mack will let him get away with.

“Sometimes the only thing a man can do is vote with his feet,” Mack says, sounding resigned. “I don't exactly have a lot of pull around here, but I'm not going to stick around and support what I see this organization becoming.”

“And what's that?” Leo challenges.

“Reckless,” Mack says. “Dangerous. A bunch of cowboys messing with things they shouldn't and causing a lot of collateral damage. I joined SHIELD to help people, but I don't think I can do that here anymore.”

“You're wrong,” Leo says. “The world's changing, and that's... scary. Terrifying. But the worst thing we can do is pretend it hasn't. _That_ – that's what's dangerous. Coulson's – he's not afraid. He'll get us through it.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Mack's too close; Leo can't look him in the eye anymore. He drops his gaze to the floor, trying to blink away the burn in his eyes, so when Mack puts a gentle hand on his arm he starts badly. He's surprised, when he looks up, to see Mack's face so close to his. He's _shocked_ when Mack tips his chin up and kisses him carefully on the lips, but not so shocked that he doesn't press closer after a moment. Not so shocked that he doesn't slide his hands up Mack's strong arms and deepen the kiss.

He's learned a lot, by now, about missed chances.

It's Mack who breaks away first, resting his forehead against Leo's and cupping his cheek in one huge palm. “Come with me,” he whispers.

Leo's eyes widen, and he jerks back a little to stare at Mack.

“Please,” Mack chokes out, like he has so much he wants to say that it all gets clogged up and trapped behind his throat. “Please.”

Leo gapes at him, mind utterly blank, trying to understand what just happened. What is happening. And suddenly, out of nowhere, he's blinded with rage. Before he even knows what he's doing he balls up his fist and punches Mack in the chest.

“Fuck you,” he spits, hitting him again because the first time felt good. “Fuck you, _fuck_ you, you do this _now_? After _everything_ you – _Now_?”

Mack wraps his arms around him and pulls him close. Leo can't get the leverage to hit him anymore so he clutches Mack's shirt and burrows his face into his broad chest. His breath is hitching and catching and his face feels wet.

“I know, I know, shh, I know,” Mack murmurs, which is nonsense because if he knew, he would never have asked that. If he _knew_ he wouldn't _leave_.

“I know they're you're friends,” Mack continues traitorously. “And I know they mean well, but you gotta believe me, Turbo, things are fucked up around here and they're only gonna get worse.”

Leo scrunches his eyes shut and pulls himself violently from the seductive warmth of Mack's embrace. “They are my _family_ ,” Leo corrects viciously. “I'm not going to abandon them.”

_Not like you._

“Please, Tur – _Leo_. Please!” Mack begs, reaching for Leo again, but he ducks away this time. “I've been a part of SHEILD a long time. I can see when things are about to go to hell and trust me, the shit is about to hit the fan in a big way and a lot of people are gonna get hurt. The last thing I want is for you to get caught up in it.”

Leo shakes his head, wiping his damp eyes with one trembling hand. “I'm not afraid of getting hurt,” he says with a watery glare.

Mack smiles sadly at him. “I know you're not. But I still don't want you to be.”

“Well I don't want you to leave,” Leo snaps, pulling himself ruthlessly back together. “Guess we're both out of luck, huh?”

“Yeah,” Mack says, sounding defeated. “I guess we are.”

“So that's it then?” Leo asks, wishing vainly for Mack to take it all back, to stay so that they can _fix_ things. So they can be... whatever that kiss meant they could be.

“For now, yeah,” is what he says. Leo doesn't really know what that means, except that Mack hasn't changed his mind and he's just going to walk away from the broken mess he's made of them, and from the maybe not so broken future they could have.

Leo means to leave right then, he really does, except what he actually ends up doing is spin around, grab Mack's shirt, and pull him down into one last, desperate kiss.

This one lasts a while, neither one of them wanting to let go, both of them knowing there will be no more kisses after this one. Leo feels like he's drowning in Mack's arms, the size and heat of him, and for one weak moment he's tempted to take him up on his offer.

But in the end, when they break apart, he just says “Don't get killed out there,” shakily onto Mack's lips.

“Right back atcha,” he murmers back.

Leo squeezes his eyes shut, presses his lips once more against Mack's lips, and tears himself out of Mack's arms.

When he leaves, he doesn't look back.

 

 


End file.
